


That Can't Be How The Force Works

by MayGlenn



Series: May's February Ficlet Challenge 2019 [25]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bodyswap, Established Relationship, M/M, That's Not How The Force Works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 09:17:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18008123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayGlenn/pseuds/MayGlenn
Summary: “Maybe it’s a...Force thing,” Finn said, again, carefully, with Poe’s voice.“Finn, you said that already. This is too weird to be a Force thing!” Poe said, with Finn’s voice, which sounded more agitated than Poe was trying to feel. “Either way, we need to find Rey and Rose and get out of here.”





	That Can't Be How The Force Works

“Maybe it’s a...Force thing,” Finn said, again, carefully, with Poe’s voice.

“Finn, you said that already. This is too weird to be a Force thing!” Poe said, with Finn’s voice, which sounded more agitated than Poe was trying to feel. “Either way, we need to find Rey and Rose and get out of here.”

They were infiltrating a First Order base, which seemed to be just another Primeday for them, and though they had the plans they needed and it was time to get out of here, they needed to maintain their cover until they found Rey.

The worry was, that whatever strange anomaly they had walked through that had Poe suddenly in Finn’s body and Finn in Poe’s body now had Poe in stormtrooper armor and Finn in a TIE fighter flight suit. So if anyone saw them—

“You there! Where’s your squad, soldier?”

Poe realized that the new stormtrooper—an officer by the red pauldron on his shoulder, but Poe couldn’t figure out how to turn on the scanner in his helmet to tell him his name or number or exact rank—was talking to him. “I, uh—”

“He’s attending me,” Finn bluffed, before he quite knew where he was going with this. “I need help replacing the…” he thought about making up a ship part name, but decided against it, “...with maintenance.”

“Why wasn’t I notified?” The officer snapped, but logged and approved the personnel transfer, anyway. “Who’s your superior officer, pilot? I’ll report this.”

“Captain, uhh, Command—” Finn cast his mind back. He had _written_ this part of the briefing! He just hadn’t studied it! And the TIE pilot helmets didn’t always talk to each other very well to the stormtrooper helmets, and his was failing him now.

“Well, spit it out!”

“He’s new, sir,” Poe supplied, hoping it wasn’t completely out of line (what did he know about military decorum and protocol other than to break it at the best of times?). “Captain Levram, wasn’t it?”

“Right!” Finn said, relieved.

It felt very much like the officer was frowning, and they saw him make another report. “Carry on. And watch your step the rest of the week.”

As the stormtrooper marched off, Finn relaxed. “Well, he was nice.”

“That was _nice_?” Poe hissed, sounding too high-pitched again. He was pretty sure he was learning that as a rule, Finn sounded more nervous than he ever actually was.

“Okay, well, we need to get to the rendezvous point,” Finn said.

“Well, you’re leading the way, apparently,” Poe said.

...

Rose had logged that their getaway shuttle needed repairs, but so far Rey and Rose weren’t there yet. And there was another problem:

“That’s a pretty big canopy,” Poe said, once they were inside.

“So?”

“So, they can see into it from the control tower.”

Finn, following this line of thought, took off his helmet, shaking out the curls that had flopped into his face. “Poe, I _can’t_. We should just switch uniforms or something!”

Poe seemed ready to agree to this when two more stormtroopers marched in.

“Why haven’t we primed for takeoff?” one of them hissed, in Rey’s voice. “Poe, put your helmet back on!”

“Rey!” Poe and Finn cried together, relieved, and, as the much shorter stormtrooper shut the doors, added, “Rose!”

_Maybe they could solve this!_

“We’re gonna need you to get us out of here nice and easy and _yesterday_ , Commander,” Rose said. “We kinda ran into some lowkey trouble…”

Finn and Poe froze, not sure how to explain the situation to them, and for the moment, actually confused about which one of them Rose was talking to.

“Well, we also have a—a bit of an issue—” Poe began.

“We don’t have time for that, Finn! Poe, get us out of here—nice and easy.” Rey pushed Finn into the pilot’s seat and stepped back, out of the line of sight from the command tower.

“Well, see, the problem is—” Finn began.

“Poe!” Rey and Rose ducked back even further, catching movement on the ground, now whispering to each other: “It’s not going to take them long to figure out where we went.”

“Prime the engines, buddy,” Poe blurted out, deciding there was no way to explain this, and acting in the moment. “Which is that lever there. Then you need to toggle all the switches above your head.”

“Finn, I think he knows how to fly—”

Poe ignored her. “And then you’ll engage the lift thrusters and turn us around…”

“Okay. Okay, I can do this,” Finn said, sweat pouring down his face.

“Absolutely. You can do this,” Poe agreed.

“What is _wrong_ with you two?” Rose snapped, buckling herself in.

Rey looked back and forth between them, and then suddenly gasped. She _thought_ something had felt different…

“Are—are you…? ” she began, but it was too crazy to even say. “Okay. Poe. Finn. Ah. Can you—can you get us out of here?”

“Of course he can,” Poe said, just as Finn said, “No, I can’t!”

“I’ll talk you through it,” Poe said, with Finn’s voice, and it sounded so earnest and comforting he almost believed it. “Thrusters are the two dials by your knee.”

Finn sucked in a breath through pursed lips and let it out again. “Okay.”

“Don’t hit them hard, ease into them,” Rey added. “Make it look nice and easy.”

On some level, this was a test, to make sure it really _was_ Finn in there—Poe would never have allowed her to tell him how to pilot a ship, just as she wouldn’t allow him to tell her how to fly. She was surprised when the man with Finn’s voice, beside her, agreed with her. “That’s right, buddy. Nice and easy. And then you use the stick in the middle to turn us around. Just nudge it gently to the left.”

“Come on, come on,” Rose prayed, screwing her eyes shut, but somehow whoever was piloting got them out of the hangar and the universe rippled and stretched and they were in hyperspace.

Helmets came off with a hiss, and Poe and Finn fell into each other’s arms.

“Finn, buddy, you were amazing!” Poe said (which was weird to see coming from Finn’s mouth), and grabbed Finn’s cheeks and kissed him.

The face in front of him looked like a stranger, though he knew on some level it was his own face. He closed his eyes and melted into the kiss. Poe’s lips felt odd, but so did his, and then there was a disorienting shift and when he opened his eyes he was on his knees beside the pilot’s chair and—

“Poe!”

“Finn!”

“We’re back!”

“You’re back?” Rey asked.

Poe smirked that characteristic grin that looked so right on his face. Finn smiled back at him, eyes huge and bright with life and love. “Man, here I was hoping we’d get to try sex with our bodies switched,” Poe teased.

“Seriously?” Finn rolled his eyes, as did Rey: _Yeah, Poe was back._

“Wait, _what_?” Rose cried. “Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“I think they both hallucinated,” Rey muttered, getting into her seat. “And me, too, for that matter.”

“Why would I hallucinate being _less_ handsome than I already am?” Finn teased.

“Hey!” Poe punched Finn in the arm as he swiveled the pilot’s chair around.

“So Poe and Finn—switched minds?” Rose glared narrowly at each of them, catching up. “Never mind that that’s impossible. I didn’t know the Force could do that.”

“Maybe the Dark side can,” Rey said with a shrug. “Or some kind of magic.”

“I thought the Force _was…_ ”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Rey said, already looking like she had a headache.

“All in favor of pretending this never happened say ‘aye,’” Poe said, raising his hand.

“That _what_ happened?” Finn agreed, raising his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Twenty-fifth in the February Ficlet Challenge of 2019. The prompt was "Bodyswap." 
> 
> This is dedicated to that weird phenomenon in those early Stormpilot works where people mixed up Finn and Poe's names way more than was usual XD


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